Why it works: Pork and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,515 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Fresh Pork Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the pork squares well.
Prepare the curry according to the directions in recipe No. 26, using less ghee and adding a few whole cloves.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Pork + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,515 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pork + gheetop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together41 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Ghee + clovetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together656 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, ghee):
- Garlicfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, ghee. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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